Eye care in the community: Part 8 – Field loss

Patients both young and old may complain of loss of vision and, in this article, I will describe two patients of different ages who noticed a loss of peripheral vision. Such cases require us eye care practitioners to become detectives in trying to unravel the mystery behind the loss of visual field. Patients want reasons for their visual problems.

Without hard evidence, we can only give patients possible reasons for vision loss. But a good deal can be surmised from careful interpretation of field loss.

Case 1

A 26-year-old teacher rang the practice having noticed a dark area on her left side upon waking that morning. There were no reports of flashing lights or headaches. She had never previously been to our practice, though as a contact lens wearer she had regularly visited a multiple for eye checks. She was a fitness fanatic and at the time of the problem had been training hard with weight training and gym exercises for a competition.

Ocular examination